Paul Barnes

Graphic Designer

Paul Barnes is a graphic designer who specialises in editorial and typographic design. After his graduation from Reading University in 1992, he was employed at Roger Black Incorporated in New York, as a senior designer and later an art director, involved in redesigns of Newsweek, American and British Esquire and Foreign Affairs. He also worked as art director of Esquire Gentleman and Upper & Lower Case.

Since 1995 Barnes has lived and worked in London and has since become a long-term collaborator of Peter Saville, with whom he has made identities for companies as diverse as ABC television, Givenchy and Kilgour. He has also created identities for companies from Italian fashion brand Gianvito Rossi to German publisher SchirmerGraf, created logos for Harper's Bazaar, Wallpaper* and Richard James; worked on numerous music based projects with bands such as New Order, Gay Dad and Electronic; and has collaborated with fashion photographer Nick Knight and product designer Julian Brown.

Barnes has also become an advisor on many newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times Magazine, the Guardian and the Observer newspapers, GQ, Wallpaper*, Harper's Bazaar and Frieze. He has redesigned many magazines including Spin and Frieze, as well as books for publishers all over Europe including Schirmer-Mosel, Phaidon, Oxford University Press and the Tate.

His interest in both modern and traditional design is encompassed in his type design and lettering; he has created original typefaces for Alcro Paints in Sweden, HSH bank, enercity, Harper's Bazaar, Björk, the Observer, the Guardian (with Christian Schwartz), American Vogue, W and Givenchy. In addition, Barnes has taught on typography, graphic design and newspapers in Britain, the United States, Sweden and Singapore.

In 2007, Barnes co-founded Commercial Type, which develops typefaces internationally, with Christian Schwartz.

Paul Barnes is a graphic designer who specialises in editorial and typographic design. After his graduation from Reading University in 1992, he was employed at Roger Black Incorporated in New York, as a senior designer and later an art director, involved in redesigns of Newsweek, American and British Esquire and Foreign Affairs. He also worked as art director of Esquire Gentleman and Upper & Lower Case.

Since 1995 Barnes has lived and worked in London and has since become a long-term collaborator of Peter Saville, with whom he has made identities for companies as diverse as ABC television, Givenchy and Kilgour. He has also created identities for companies from Italian fashion brand Gianvito Rossi to German publisher SchirmerGraf, created logos for Harper's Bazaar, Wallpaper* and Richard James; worked on numerous music based projects with bands such as New Order, Gay Dad and Electronic; and has collaborated with fashion photographer Nick Knight and product designer Julian Brown.

Barnes has also become an advisor on many newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times Magazine, the Guardian and the Observer newspapers, GQ, Wallpaper*, Harper's Bazaar and Frieze. He has redesigned many magazines including Spin and Frieze, as well as books for publishers all over Europe including Schirmer-Mosel, Phaidon, Oxford University Press and the Tate.

His interest in both modern and traditional design is encompassed in his type design and lettering; he has created original typefaces for Alcro Paints in Sweden, HSH bank, enercity, Harper's Bazaar, Björk, the Observer, the Guardian (with Christian Schwartz), American Vogue, W and Givenchy. In addition, Barnes has taught on typography, graphic design and newspapers in Britain, the United States, Sweden and Singapore.

In 2007, Barnes co-founded Commercial Type, which develops typefaces internationally, with Christian Schwartz.

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